branding yourself - how to use social media to invent or reinvent yourself

Branding
How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself
Yourself
Erik Deckers
Kyle Lacy
UU5®
800 East 96th Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA
Branding Yourself: Using Social Media to
Invent or Reinvent Yourself
Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: December 2010
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4727-3
ISBN-10: 0-7897-4727-8
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CONTENTS
I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
1 Welcome to the Party 3
What Is Self-Promotion? 5
Why Is Self-Promotion Important? 5
What Self-Promotion Is Not 6
What Can Self-Promotion Do for You and Your Career? . .6
Personal Branding 6
What Is Personal Branding? 7
Go Brand Yourself 8
How to Build Your Brand 8
The Five Universal Objectives of Personal Branding 9
Discover Your Passion. (Passion Is Fundamental to
Achieving Your Goals.) 9
Be Bold. (Its Okay to Talk About Yourself.) 10
Tell Your Story. (Your Story Is What Makes
You Special.) 12
Create Relationships. (Relationships Lead to
Opportunities.) 13

Take Action. (Even a Small Step Is a Step Forward.) 14
Who Needs Self-Promotion? 15
Meet Our Heroes 17
2 How Do You Fit in the Mix? 19
The Basics of Building Your Personal Brand Story 21
Writing Your Personal Brand Autobiography 21
Prioritizing When Writing Your Personal Brand Story .22
Writing Your Personal Brand Biography 23
How Do Our Heroes Use the Personal Brand
Biography? 25
Telling Your Complete Brand Story 27
Do's and Don'ts of Telling Your Story 29
1. Don't Post Pictures That Would Shock Your Mother . .30
2. Don't View Your Personal Brand Story as a Sales Pitch .30
3. Don't Post Something You Will Regret Later 30
4. Don't Ask for Things First. Ask for Things Second .31
5. Don't Get Distracted 31
6. Don't Underestimate the Power of Your Network 31
vi Branding Yourself
7. Do Invest in Yourself 32
8. Do Invest in Other People 32
9. Do Be Visible and Active 32
10. Do Take Some Time for Yourself 32
II Your Network Is Your Castle—Build It
3 Blogging: Telling Your Story 35
What Is Blogging? 37
A Clarification of Terms 39
Why Should You Blog? 39
Choose Your Blogging Platforms 41
Blogspot.com/Blogger.com 41

WordPress.com andWordPress.org 43
Other Blogging Platforms 44
Which Platform Should You Choose? 47
Setting Up a Blog 47
Purchasing and Hosting a Domain Name 49
Getting Inspired 49
What Should You Write About? 50
Finding Subject Matter 53
How to Write a Blog Post 53
Writing for Readers Versus Writing for Search Engines 55
How Often Should You Post? 56
How Long Should Your Posts Be? 57
But My Posts Are Too Long 58
Search Engine Optimization Through Blogging 59
How Does This Apply to Our Four Heroes? 60
Do's and Don'ts of Blogging 62
Do's 62
Don'ts 63
A Final Note on the "Rules" of Blogging 63
4 Linkedln: Networking on Steroids 65
The Basics of Linkedln 67
What's in a Linkedln Profile? 67
Cool Linkedln Features Worth Examining 71
Creating Contacts on Linkedln 73
Transforming Your Contacts into Connections 77
The Importance of Recommendations 79
Contents
vii
Ten Dos and Don'ts of Linkedln 82
1. Do Upload a Professional Picture 82

2. Do Connect to Your Real Friends and Contacts 82
3. Do Keep Your Profile Current 83
4. Do Delete People Who Spam You 83
5. Do Spend Some Time on Your Summary 83
6. Don't Use Linkedln Like Facebook and Twitter 84
7. Don't Sync Linkedln with Twitter 84
8. Don't Decline Invitations. Archive Them 84
9. Don't Ask Everyone for Recommendations 84
10. Don't Forget to Use Spelling and Grammar Check .85
5 Twitter: Sharing in the Conversation 87
Why Should You Use Twitter? 88
What Can Twitter Do for You? 89
How Do You Use Twitter? 91
Creating a Twitter Profile 91
Getting Followers 92
Sending Out Tweets 93
Retweeting Your Content 94
Applications for Twitter Domination 96
Desktop Applications 97
Web-Based Applications 98
Mobile Applications 100
What Should You Tweet (and What Shouldn't You?) 101
Do's and Don'ts While Using Twitter 104
How Does This Chapter Apply to Our Four Heroes? 105
6 Facebook: Developing a Community of Friends 107
Why Should You Use Facebook? 108
What Can Facebook Do for You? 109
Reconnect with Old Classmates and Co-Workers 110
Use a Facebook Page to Professionally Brand Yourself . .110
Help a Cause and Be Philanthropic 110

Find and Attend Local Events Ill
What You Should Know First About Facebook Ill
Professional Page and Personal Profile 112
The Basics: Creating a Personal Profile 114
Staying in Control of Your Profile 116
viii Branding Yourself
Working with Your Personal Page Privacy Settings 116
Setting Up Your Privacy Settings for Your
Personal Account 117
Working with Your Customized URL 118
How Can I Use a Professional Page for
Personal Branding? 119
Using Insights to Track Your Content Growth 120
Setting Up Your Professional Page 122
Top Five Tips for Using Facebook 123
Ten Dos and Don'ts of Facebook 125
1. Do Upload a Real Picture 125
2. Do Share Industry-Specific Content 126
3. Do Use Your Email to Find Friends 126
4. Do Read the Terms of Service 127
5. Don't Use Inappropriate Language 127
6. Don't Spam People 127
7. Don't Poke People 127
8. Don't Tag Everyone in a Picture 128
9. Don't Sync Your Twitter Profile with
Your Facebook Page 128
10. Don't Invite People to Your Professional Page
Over and Over and Over. 128
7 Bringing It All Together: Launching Your Brand 129
What Is a Personal Brand Campaign? 131

How Do Our Heroes Build Their P&T Statement? 133
Why Is a Personal Brand Campaign Important? 136
Building Your Personal Brand Campaign 137
Developing Your Personal Brand Campaign 137
Implementing Your Personal Brand Campaign 138
Automating Your Personal Brand Campaign 140
Unique Ways to Launch Your Branding Campaign 141
How Should Our Heroes Launch Their Brands? 143
Do's and Don'ts of Launching Your Personal Brand 144
8 Measuring Success: You Like Me, You Really Like Me! 147
Why Should You Measure 149
What Should You Measure? 149
Reach 149
Quality Versus Quantity 150
Contents ix
Visibility 150
Influence 151
How Should You Measure? 153
Measuring Your Blogging Effectiveness 154
Using Google Analytics for Your Blog 155
Measuring Your Twitter Effectiveness 159
Measuring Your Linkedln Effectiveness 160
Measuring Your Facebook Effectiveness 161
Ten Tools to Use for Measurement 164
Effectively Measuring Your Personal Brand 165
How Can Our Heroes Use Analytics and Measurement? .166
Do's and Don'ts for Analytics and Measurement 167
III Promoting Your Brand in the Real World
9 How to Network: Hello, My Name Is 171
Why Should I Bother Networking? 173

A Networking Case Study: Starla West 174
The Rules of Networking 175
It's Not About You 175
Giver's Gain Is Not Quid Pro Quo 176
Be Honest Online and Offline 178
You're Just as Good as Everyone Else 179
Avoid People Who Are Unhelpful 180
Network with Your Competition 181
Three Types of Networking 182
Networking Groups 183
One-on-One Networking 188
The Follow-Up 193
Be Honest 196
Do's and Don'ts of Networking 197
Do 197
Don't 198
How Would Our Heroes Network? 199
10 Public Speaking: We Promise You Won't Die 201
Case Study: Hazel Walker, The Queen of Networking 203
Should I Speak in Public? 204
No, Seriously. 204
But I Hate Speaking in Public 204
x Branding Yourself
Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking 205
Toastmasters 205
Classes at Your Local College or University 206
Seminars and Courses 206
Speakers Associations 207
Private or Executive Coaches 207
Finding or Creating Your Own Speaking Niche 207

How to Start Your Speaking Career 209
Identify Speaking Opportunities 211
Industry Groups 212
Civic Groups 213
Conferences, Trade Shows, and Expos 213
Introducing Yourself 215
Promoting Your Talk 216
How Does This Apply to Our Four Heroes? 218
Giving Your Talk 219
Important Technology Tips for Presenters 221
Miscellaneous Tips, 140 Characters or Less 225
11 Getting Published: I'm an Author! 227
Why Should I Become a Writer? 229
Publication Opportunities 230
Local Newspapers 231
Business Newspapers 232
Scientific Journals 233
Specialty Magazines and Newspapers 234
Hobby Publications 235
Major Mainstream Magazines 236
Go Horizontal Instead of Vertical 236
Build Your Personal Brand with Your Writing 237
Publication Rights 239
Create Your Own Articles Niche 240
Getting Started 241
Getting Paid 243
Paying Your Dues 244
The Myth of "Exposure" 245
Do's and Don'ts of Writing for Publication 246
How Can Our Heroes Turn to Writing for Publication? .247

Contents
Personal Branding: Using What You've Learned to Land Your
Dream Job 249
Using Your Network to Find a Job 251
Twitter: Make Job Connections in 140 Characters 252
Use Linkedln to Make Job Connections 253
Creating a Resume 256
Should I Create a Paper Resume? 257
How Does Social Media Fit in Your Resume? 258
Six Tips for Listing Social Media on Your Resume 258
Do's and Don'ts of Resume Building 260
Don't Rely on the Job Boards 263
Try the Company Job Boards Instead 264
Use Linkedln to Bypass the Job Board Process 265
Skip HR Altogether, and Work Your Network 266
Using Your Network to Land a Freelance Contract 267
How Can Our Heroes Find a Job Through
Networking? 268
A Social Media Case Study 269
Job Searching Tips in 140 Characters 271
Index 273
xii
Foreword
I'm imagining that you're standing in the aisle of your local bookseller, or at your
local library, or you're flipping through these pages on Amazon, and you're wonder-
ing: Should I read this book? And, I suppose you might be looking to me for clues
and insight: Well, should I?
Look, you're busy. So, rather than feed you a bunch of bloated text about what a
gem this book is and how genius its authors are, I'm going to keep it simple and
direct and give you an easily digestible five reasons why I think this book may be

important to you.
Five Reasons This Book Rocks
The truth is I do believe this book is a marvelous means by which to help someone
understand how to build and sustain a meaningful network through the smart use
of both online and in-person networking tools and opportunities. (And by "some-
one," I mean practically anyone, from a teacher to a high-tech marketer, from a
cook to a CEO to a candlestick maker.) But borrowing a page from Erik and Kyle's
book, I'd rather show you than simply tell you, so you can see for yourself what I
mean.
1. Online tools like Twitter, blogging, Linkedln, Facebook, and so on
have created an enormous opportunity for individuals to build their
reputations and create networks with unprecedented reach. No
longer are you confined to do business or create relationships with peo-
ple you know in "carbon form," as my friend Mitch Joel calls face-to-
face meetings. Instead, you can grow your network exponentially, with
people from all around the globe. Yeah, but how? And what's the best
way to connect? Well, that's what this book tells you.
2. Wait a sec .Twitter? Isn't Twitter just a bunch of people talking
about the burrito they just ate for lunch? Yes, Twitter. And umm, no;
it's not just about lunchtime menus. Twitter is a much richer experience
for those who know how to leverage it. As Erik and Kyle say, "Do you
care about 150 million people paying attention and understanding your
message?" That's why you should care about Twitter.
3. Your content is your key differentiator online. This theme is a back-
bone of the book (and it's also the major thrust of a book I wrote as
well): The "content" you produce across every social platform— what
you say on Twitter, what you post and how you interact on Linkedln
and Facebook, and what you say on your blog (and how you say it)—is
the key way you can begin to build an online reputation and "promise"
Foreword xiii

to your would-be clients, customers, or potential employer. It's also a
key way to differentiate you from your competition, especially if you
have a compelling, interesting, and wholly authentic point of view.
4. Authentic equals passion (and passion is everything). Its one thing to
show you how to leverage online tools, in-person networking, and pub-
lic speaking tactics. But, the authors say what really makes the use of
such tools and tactics authentic is when you apply them to your own
passions—in other words, when you figure out what it is you love best
and share it with your own growing community! "Authenticity" might
be one of those amorphous, squishy words that can be hard to under-
stand, but its meaning and value becomes much clearer when you start
to think about it in the context of your passion and how you communi-
cate it to those around you, both online and in-person.
5. Finally, this book is not another boring business book. Erik and Kyle
made me laugh out loud with their asides, comments, and analogies.
I'm a sucker for a those who write about business with both humor and
honest empathy—in part because it gives you a sense of the real people
behind this book and in part because it's flat-out a whole lot more fun
to read.
So, there you go: five compelling reasons. Should you read this book? Add them up,
and they equal a resounding "Yes!"
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs and coauthor of Content Rules: How to
Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage
Customers and Ignite Your Business (ISBN: 9780470648285 ,Wiley, 2010)
xiv
About the Authors
Erik Deckers is the co-owner and vice president of creative services of Professional
Blog Service, a ghost blogging and social media agency. He has been blogging since
1997 and speaks widely on social media topics. He is also a newspaper columnist

and award-winning playwright.
Kyle Lacy is founder and CEO of Brandswag, a digital marketing firm working
with businesses large and small. His blog, KyleLacy.com, has been featured on The
Wall Street Journal online and many other blogs. He is also constantly ranked in
many top blog sites around the world, most recently AdAge 150.
Deckers and Lacy coauthored Twitter Marketing For Dummies.
Dedication
To Toni, Madison, Emmalie, and Benjamin.
—Erik
To all my family.
—Kyle
XV
Acknowledgments
We often say that social media is a community, and this book is no different. We
couldn't have done it without some very special people.
The words "thank you" don't do justice to our appreciation for your help. First,
thank you to Katherine Bull, our acquisitions editor at Pearson, for taking a chance
on us and keeping us on the right track. Thanks also to Brandon Prebynski and
Leslie O'Neill for all those (at the time) annoying questions that, frankly, made this
book so much better. And thanks to Karen Gill for copy editing (Erik says you
didn't have to work as hard on his pages—yeah, right) and Jovana San Nicolas-
Shirley for making this book look so good!
But we also want to thank people in our community who helped us become the
kinds of people who knew enough about this stuff to fill a book, or even to become
the kinds of people to write one. You have staggered us with your generosity of time
and knowledge. So thanks to—in no particular order—Paul Lorinczi (Erik's busi-
ness partner), Brandon Coon (Kyle's business partner), Lorraine Ball (Kyle's first
employer and Erik's networking mentor), Hazel Walker, Doug Karr, Jason Falls,
Tony Scelzo, Noah Coffey, Shawn Plew, the whole Lacy clan (Dan, Rainy, Kayla, and
Kelly), Lindsay Manfredi, Jay Baer, the Brandswag team (Austin Wechter, Rachel

Elsts, Stephanie Gray), Thomas Ho, Bob Burchfield—you people realize that if
you're on the list, you have to buy the book, right?—Daniel Herndon, Sarah
Robbins (who got Erik started in social media), Mike Seidle, and Scott Wise.
(Scotty's Brewhouse has been a great place to meet and work on this book.)
(Erik would also like to thank Kyle for asking him to help with his first writing
project, which led to this one, and hopefully will lead to many more.)
Finally, Erik would like to give a special thanks to his wife, Toni, and his three chil-
dren, Maddie, Emma, and Ben, for giving him the support and love to write this
book. Hopefully those 2:00 a.m. bedtimes will pay off. Kyle would like to especially
thank Rachel King for helping him through the daily routine and keeping him
strong.
xvi
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value your opinion and want to know what we're doing right, what we could do bet-
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As an associate publisher for Que Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can
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Please note that I cannot help you with technical problems related to the topic of this
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When you write, please be sure to include this book's title and author as well as
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for this book.
Why Do I Care About
Self-Promotion?
1 Welcome to the Party 3
2 How Do You Fit in the Mix? 19
1
Welcome to the
Party
A story.
When Erik Deckers moved to Indianapolis in 2006, he
knew one person. When an expected job didn't quite
work out, he searched for another, relying on job boards.
He finally found a job at the Indiana State Department of
Health.
Erik worked there for nearly 16 months and got to know a
number of people in the agency and a few people in other
agencies. Rarely, however, did he ever have the opportu-
nity to work with people on the outside. Consorting with
the private sector was almost frowned upon, and attend-
ing business-related events during work hours was not
allowed. Needless to say, Erik's professional circle was
limited to his co-workers and a few journalists around the
state.
When Erik left for a private sector job in 2007, selling
direct mail services (interestingly, he got this job through

the one guy he knew when he moved to Indianapolis), he
4
Part I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
realized the people he knew in his old job weren't going
to help him in his new efforts, at least not right away.
So, rather than spending every day on the phone, Erik
started attending Rainmakers meetings (a local network-
ing organization), a business book club, and the
Chambers of Commerce in Indianapolis and Fishers, a
suburb to the northeast. He attended at least two and
sometimes three events a week, at 7:30 in the morning, or
5:00 in the afternoon. The idea was that by meeting other
people in the business world, he could learn about new
opportunities, meet possible new clients, and find new
partners who can act as evangelists, a sort of "freelance
salesperson" to their clients.
At the same time, he attended a half-day seminar on
social media and blogging put on by a local Internet mar-
keting company. Erik had been blogging infrequently up
until that point, but he began to take it seriously. He stud-
ied blogging by reading other blogs and books about
blogging and trying some of the new ideas and tech-
niques he was learning.
As part of his networking, Erik would have coffee or lunch
with people he met. He tried to learn as much about them
as he could and asked if they could refer him to anyone
else who would be interested in learning about his serv-
ices. Many times, they asked about blogging and social
media, and he would tell them as much as he could. He
spent a lot of time online, blogging, promoting his blog,

and communicating on Facebook, Linkedln, and Smaller
Indiana, a niche social network.
Chapter 1 Welcome to the Party 22
Those connections have led to many opportunities—
sales, speaking opportunities, blogging opportunities, a
job, and even this book—that never would have hap-
pened if Erik had limited his job search to just the job
boards—and especially if he hadn't drunk enough coffee
to float a battleship.
When Kyle and Erik were discussing how to write this
book, Kyle said, "We need to write it for you, the you from
2007. We need to tell that guy how to brand himself and
promote himself online."
What Is Self-Promotion?
Self-promotion is just what it sounds like: promoting yourself, your events, your
accomplishments, your victories, and even your defeats, problems, and lessons you
have learned. You do it so you can increase your visibility to and awareness by oth-
ers, increase traffic to your website, increase sales, and get more speaking opportu-
nities, exhibitions, and gigs—more of whatever it is you're looking for.
You promote yourself so you can get even more opportunities, which you can then
tell people about.
Self-promotion is also called "branding yourself," because that's really what it has
become. (That, and it's what we wanted to call the book.) In fact, we prefer to think
of it as personal branding, because you need to think of yourself as a brand, just
like Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Google, or Facebook.
Why Is Self-Promotion Important?
You can't count on people calling you out of the blue to hire you, buy your service,
or book you for an event if they don't know about you. The only way to get people
to know who you are and what you do is to tell them. And you want to tell as many
people who are actually interested as you can.

Self-promotion will help you make those important connections that will further
your career and improve your professional standing. It can be as simple as intro-
ducing yourself to the organizer of a conference and telling her you are interested
in speaking at her next conference, or it can be as involved as writing a book or two
and then spending a day emailing every conference organizer you can to get as
many speaking deals as you can.
6
Part I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
@kyleplacy: Is that a shot at me?
@edeckers: No, not at all, Mr. I-Don't-Have-Time-
for-Lunch-Today.
What Self-Promotion Is Not
Self-promotion is not bragging or boasting. It's not being something bigger than
you are. It's just letting people know who you are and what you do.
It's perfectly acceptable to promote yourself without looking like an arrogant jerk.
People are going to be out promoting themselves and their personal endeavors and
small businesses. If you're not, you're missing out on good opportunities, and others
are going to beat you in the competition. They're going to sell their art, get their
speaking gigs, get more web traffic, or whatever they're competing with you for.
What Can Self-Promotion Do for You and Your Career?
Without question, self-promotion can make you successful. And if you're already
successful, it will make your personal brand huge. You don't get to be a success
without knowing a lot of people and having a lot of people know you. If you want
to be stuck in a little gray cubicle for your entire career, never rising above lower
middle management, keep your head down and don't attract attention. But if you
want to make a name for yourself, establish a good reputation, finally get that cor-
ner office, or even own your own successful business, you need to promote yourself.
To do that, you need to be passionate about two things: the work you do, and your-
self. If you're not passionate about what you're doing, find the thing you're passion-
ate about. If you're not passionate about yourself, seek professional help. The person

you should love the most, admire the most, and treasure the most is you. And when
you have that confidence in yourself, others will see it, too. When you share that
confidence with other people, they'll feel confident about you as well.
So don't sit in your cubicle any longer. Figure out what you want to do, make it hap-
pen, and then start telling people about it. Let them know that you are good at what
you do. Let them come to you for answers and information.
Personal Branding
If you ask 100 people what personal branding is, you'll get 100 different answers.
But the answer we're going with is that it is an emotional response to the image or
name of a particular company, product, or person.
Chapter 1 Welcome to the Party
7
Think of some corporate brands you have positive or negative feelings toward:
McDonalds, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Indianapolis Colts, Chicago Cubs, BP.
These brands are popular because they have created a lot of positive feelings in
their fans, even if they also engender negative feelings in their detractors.
Similarly, people have emotional responses when they see you or meet you for the
first time. These responses can be feelings of joy, pleasure, love, dread, fear, or anger.
When they hear your name again, they will either have new experiences and emo-
tions, or they will relive the old ones. The kinds of emotional responses they have
will depend on you.
Branding yourself means that you create the right kind of emotional response you
want people to have when they hear your name, see you online, or meet you in
person.
The "right" kind doesn't mean being someone you're not. Its your personality, your
voice, your interests, your habits—everything about you that you want people to
know. This means that the information you show to other people, the things you
say, and the photos you post should all fit within that theme of your personal
brand.
If you're a stand-up comic, your brand is "funny." You want people to see that you

actually are funny, which means posting some of your jokes and posting links to
videos of your routine and even to your blog.
If you're a freelance graphic designer, your brand is "creative." You want people to
know you have creative skills, so you'll show people samples of your work through
an online portfolio, possibly a blog.
If you're a cost reduction analyst, your brand is "saving companies money." You can
demonstrate your knowledge by answering questions on Linkedln, writing useful
articles on your blog, and giving talks to Chambers of Commerce.
A brand is an emotional response to the image or name of a particular
company, product, or person.
What Is Personal Branding?
8
Part I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
Go Brand Yourself
Ask yourself: What do I want to be known for? What qualities do I want people to
associate with me? What is the first thing I want to have pop in their head when
they hear my name?
Next, create a list of those qualities. Write down everything you can think of in five
minutes, even if you think you're repeating yourself. Don't edit yourself, and don't
leave anything off. This is not a time to be humble or to think, "No one will think
of me that way." Come up with every adjective and noun you can think of, no mat-
ter how far out or weird it may seem. It may just spur another idea that actually
does fit.
Let's say your list looks like this:
Creative
Musical
Networker
Knowledgeable
Intelligent
Funny

Well-read
Outgoing
Songwriter
Dedicated
Interested in people
Detail-oriented
Singer
Teacher
Organized
From here, you want to start grouping things that are similar. In one group, we have
musical, songwriter, singer, and creative. In another, we have knowledgeable, intelli-
gent, well-read, and teacher. In a third, we have networker, outgoing, and interested
in people.
We can call these groups anything we want, but let's stick with Musical,
Knowledgeable, and Networker. These groups are the start of branding yourself.
They're the areas you should concentrate on being known for—the areas that will
define what people know you for. They may know you for more—being a good
cook, a budding actor, someone who's fun to hang out with at parties—but those are
reserved more for your personal friends, not something you want to focus on, at
least not at the moment. These latter attributes can be an additional side to your
brand once in a while, but they shouldn't be the main focus of your personal brand.
How to Build Your Brand
The remaining 11 chapters of this book focus on how to build your brand. You're
going to learn what you need to do to promote your personal brand with each of
the social media tools and real-world events we discuss, whether it's writing a blog
post, posting messages on Twitter, or giving a speech.
Before you get started, however, you need to understand the foundation of personal
branding.
Chapter 1 Welcome to the Party 9
The Five Universal Objectives of Personal Branding

Whoever you are, whatever you techniques you use, whomever you want to reach,
there are five basic ideas — five universal objectives — that are the same for anyone
who is trying to grown their personal brand.
Discover Your Passion. (Passion Is Fundamental to
Achieving Your Goals.)
What do you love to do? What gets you out of bed in the morning, fires your imagi-
nation, and revs you up? What do you think about when you're daydreaming and
spend all your free time doing or pursuing?
Some people are passionate about their work. They love what they do, and that's
where they focus their time and energy. These people—usually entrepreneurs—
have found a particular niche that makes them happy, and they want to find a way
to make money from it. They wake up early, stay up late, and spend every waking
minute thinking about, talking about, or actually doing their work.
In his book, Crush It!, Gary Vaynerchuk talks about how he spends hours and hours
leaving comments on other people's blogs talking about wine. It's not because he
likes leaving comments or because he wants to boost his web traffic. It's because he
loves wine. He loves selling it, talking about it, and writing about it. His love of wine
has turned him into a celebrity and helped him sell plenty of wine for his family's
liquor store.
Others are passionate about their hobbies. Whether it's painting, playing in a band,
fixing up classic cars, analyzing baseball statistics, or collecting vinyl records, some
people love their hobbies and pursue them with an obsessive fervor. They view their
day job as a means to an end to fulfilling their passion.
And still others haven't found their passion. Or they have no passion at all. They
go to work, they come home, they eat dinner, they watch TV, they go to bed. And
then they do it all again the next day. The idea of enjoying life has been drummed
out of them.
These people are dead inside, whether or not they know it. The only thing that gets
them out of bed in the morning is the alarm clock and the fear that they'll lose
their jobs if they don't. They eat for fuel, not pleasure. They have friends out of

habit, not because they love being around people. They watch TV not because
there's anything good on, but because they're afraid of what they'll learn if they're
left alone for too long with their own thoughts: There is nothing in their lives that
is truly exciting or enjoyable.
10
Part I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
It's important to have at least one passion in your life. It can be something you are
known for, something you build your personal brand on. Or it can even be some-
thing you never tell anyone about, preferring to do in private. But the great thing
about sharing your passion is that you can get to know people who share your
interest and create some beneficial relationships.
All of this is our way of saying you need to find your passion if you want to achieve
your goals. More importantly, your goals need to tie into your passion, because
that's how you're going to achieve them.
If you want to be fulfilled and enjoy what you do, make sure your goals are achiev-
able through your passions. For example, if your long-term goal is to own a million
dollar home and drive an expensive car, you probably won't get there providing
knitting lessons to at-risk teenagers.
We won't tell you to change your passions, because that's not something you should
give up. If you love giving knitting lessons to at-risk teenagers, by all means pursue
it. Just understand that there's not much money to be made giving knitting lessons,
so getting an expensive car this way is probably not feasible. But if that's what you
love to do, rethink your goals.
But if your passion is to create a new social networking tool, and you devote every
waking hour to programming and promoting it, there is a good chance you can
achieve your goal of the big house and expensive car.
It's a matter of making sure your passions and your goals are in alignment and that
you can achieve the one through the other.
We hope you have already found your passion, because this book is based on your
actually being passionate about at least two things: 1) yourself, and 2) something

else.
Be Bold. (It's Okay to Talk About Yourself.)
Despite what your parents and teachers told you, you can tell people about your
accomplishments. In fact, we want you to do that.
We understand that it's hard to do. We've been taught that talking about ourselves is
bragging. We're supposed to be humble and quiet about our accomplishments and
let our actions speak louder than words.
Think about the past several times you saw somebody boasting about his success,
his money, his love life (at networking events, parties, night clubs, high school
reunions). We can imagine some of the words you used in reference to that person,
none of which were flattering, and none of which our editors will let us publish here.
Chapter 1 Welcome to the Party 28
In the movies—Mallrats, Karate Kid, Gladiator, The Princess Bride—the braggart
always gets his comeuppance at the end, receiving some cosmic justice. "See?" we
tell ourselves. "This is what will happen if I brag about what I do."
The problem is that we associate self-promotion with bragging. We believe telling
others about our accomplishments is the moral equivalent of bragging about how
much money we make. We associate letting people know we published an article or
are giving a talk as the equivalent of showing up at our high school reunion in a
$70,000 Italian red sports car.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We've found self-promotion seems to be especially hard for people from the
Midwest, where we live. We're your typical Midwesterners, only we got over it. We
realized we had to be bold without being arrogant. We knew if we wanted to make a
name for ourselves, and earn reputations to attract bigger clients and bigger oppor-
tunities, we had to overcome this Midwest shyness, and be willing to talk about our-
selves. A lot.
Self-promotion is just letting people know what's going on in your lives, keeping
people apprised of your special events, occasions, and accomplishments.
Table 1.1 shows a few key differences between bragging and self-promotion:

Table 1.1 The Difference Between Self-Promotion and Bragging
Self-Promotion Bragging
A Twitter message that says, "I just
published my book."
A vanity license plate that says, "Gr8 Writer."
Announcing the birth of your child. Announcing the birth of your eight children at a
national press conference.
Telling your friends you're engaged. Telling people how much he spent on the ring.
Telling your colleagues about your
promotion.
Demanding undying fealty from your underlings.
The biggest difference between self-promotion and bragging is the motivation
behind why you're telling people. If it's something you're proud of, something you
are excited to tell people about, because you "just gotta tell someone," that's okay.
That's self-promotion. If it's something you want people to do, see, visit, or even buy,
that's self-promotion.
If you're announcing something so other people will be envious, jealous, or just
think you're cool, that's bragging, and people won't like you.
Creating your online personal brand means showing your personality. What makes
you unique and interesting? Why should we want to spend time with you? Why
12
Part I Why Do I Care About Self-Promotion?
should we care what you have to say? If you're a fun person, show it. If you're inter-
ested in a lot of different things, share them. If you like to create new relationships,
seek out other interesting people.
The important thing is to realize that a) people are interested in what you have to
say, and b) it's perfectly all right to say it.
Tell Your Story. (Your Story Is What Makes You Special.)
This is the tricky part. We just told you it's okay to talk about yourself, but now you
have to do it without talking about yourself.

@kyleplacy: Huh?
@edeckers: Be patient.
Effective personal branding isn't about talking about yourself all the time. As much
as we'd all like to think that our friends and family are eagerly waiting by their com-
puters hoping to hear some news, any news, about what we're doing, they're not. In
fact, they're hoping you're sitting by your computer, waiting for news about them.
Believe it or not, the best way to build up your personal brand is to talk more about
other people, events, and ideas than you talk about yourself. That's because if you
talk about other people and promote their victories and their ideas, you become an
influencer. You are seen as someone who is not only helpful, but a valuable
resource. That helps your brand more than if you just talk about yourself over and
over. Then, you're just seen as boring.
But there are other ways you can tell your own story, without saying a word. You
don't tell people what you believe; you show it by living it.
The next chance you get, watch people. Study what they wear, what they eat, what
they drive. Play a little Sherlock Holmes, and see if you can make any deductions by
what you observe. You can get a clue to their personalities by noticing simple things
like clothing and cars.
That woman over there wearing the New York Knicks t-shirt is probably a basket-
ball fan. The skinny guy wearing the running shoes is a runner. The guy wearing a
Green Lantern t-shirt likes comic books. And the woman who drove by in the
Toyota Prius with the "Love Your Mother (Earth)" bumper sticker wants to help the
environment.
We've learned a small part of their personal stories, but they didn't say a word.
These symbols we wear and brands we support tell a story for us. They let other
people know, "This is something I believe in, and I want you to know about it."
It's the same for telling your own story. Rather than wearing a sign that says, "I love
comic books" or sending daily emails to your friends about your obsession with